Dead Island is suppose to be a first person melee game with a focus on the storytelling aspect and a RPG element mixed within the system. There are many game play elements that sound similar to other games on the market.

One of the first games that comes to my mind is Condemned: Criminal Origins. Throughout Condemned Ethan took on his enemies with melee weapons found throughout the game. Weapons like a fire axe, the blad of a paper cutter, and the ocassional fire arm. In the Condemneds sequel the weapons degraded over time. Dead Island is taking a similar approach where you must find melee weapons, like the fire axe, and use them to take out the hordes of the undead. Eventually the weapon degrades and must be replaced or repaired.

Dead Island is also said to contain blue prints that allow the player to create new weapons at work benches, much like the combo weapons in Dead Rising 2. Dead Rising was focused more on being campy whereas Dead Island wishes to take a realistic direction. As the game progresses the player is able to unlock new animations, I assume for attacks, much like you gained in Dead Rising as Chuck/Frank leveled up. There are said to be other survivors but I do not know if you can interact or join up with them.

Borderlands comes to mind because the game is a first person cooperative game with a RPG element. There have been hints of a skill tree. My hope is that Dead Island's cooperative play works as well as Borderlands did. One skill tree may focus on repair skill, while another focuses on attack.

Left 4 Dead and Dead Island share a similar enemy, zombies. There are different classes of zombies within both games that change the way players must tackle situations. Dead Island will draw serious comparisons to Left 4 Dead 2's melee combat, as both are first person and share similar weapons. Will Dead Island take the unlimited spawns of zombies? Will there be a set number of enemies? Will teamwork factor heavily into sucessfully navigating a level?

Dead Island seems to borrow some of the best mechanics from other games all the while focusing on a storytelling aspect that drives the player to finish the game.